Why is Bruce a "Hero"?

An excellent question raised by my wife. Bruce Jenner is clearly working through some substantial personal emotional and psychological issues and in that journey I wish him well. Unfortunately, the statistics out there are not in his favor. Because the issue is rooted in the mind, external physical changes do not really address the underlying dilemma. All too often such people go through life never really finding "home" and that is a sad thing.

What I fail to understand is how or why a person wrestling with their inner demons makes them a hero of any kind. Okay, Bruce has some major issues and has the money to buy the medical and psychological consultants to try and work through them. So is he a hero because he has a lot of money? Because he is confused? Because oddities make for great television shows to feed the masses? Do we then celebrate androgynous people or elevate hermaphrodites to the same status? 

It seems to me that while care, concern and sympathy are in order, making public spectacles of people who are struggling is cruel and unusual punishment, especially if they self-destruct in front of God and country. Perhaps we have become a society like ancient Rome where midgets and others with physical oddities - as well as Christians - were thrown to the lions for the crowd's entertainment. They weren't "heroes" but cannon fodder and I am afraid that is what Bruce Jenner has become. If he piles up on the rocks in public view there will be nothing more than a collective shrug of the shoulders and the exclamation that "Yeah, he was really screwed up." We will totally avoid the issue that as a society we made him perform in the public spotlight - to be a hero when it is clear that he cannot carry the burden that goes with it.